Turkey’s Move to Buy S-400 is ‘National Decision’ - Stoltenberg

The NATO ministerial meeting that took place on 4 April will mark the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, an intergovernmental military bloc’s 70th anniversary.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have made opening remarks at the Meeting of the North Atlantic Council at the level of Foreign Ministers in Washington, DC on 4 April.

The event took place after strong criticism from Donald Trump, who has recently questioned NATO's necessity in relation to his government's foreign policy.

Follow Sputnik's live feed to find out more.

Turkey's move to buy Russian air defence systems is a "national decision", but NATO members may discuss the issue on the margins of an alliance ministerial meeting in Washington, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has stated.

"It is a national decision of each NATO ally to determine its own capabilities", Stoltenberg told reporters when asked whether he sees any potential resolution on Ankara's plans to buy the S-400.

Stoltenberg acknowledged that this "an issue of great disagreement between NATO allies".

He noted that the alliance provides a platform to resolve such issues.

"NATO provides [military] support to Turkey," Stoltenberg said. Such support includes missile and air defence capabilities, he added.

NATO ministers are not planning to discuss the S-400 issue in Washington but the matter could be raised on the sidelines of the ministerial, Stoltenberg said.

Hope for Solution on US-Turkey Disagreement Over Russian S-400

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in a press conference on Thursday said that he is hopeful that a solution will be found to the ongoing disagreement between the United States and Turkey over Ankara's procurement of Russia's S-400 defence systems.

"I hope that it is possible to find a solution to this issue because we see now that this is an issue where this disagreement between two allies Turkey and the United States", Stoltenberg said.

"It is a national decision what kind of systems different NATO allies procure, but we fully realize that this is now a challenge and it is an issue that has been discussed and is addressed by the United States and Turkey", the NATO chief pointed out.

Stoltenberg also noted that the matter is not on the agenda of the alliance's ministerial meeting currently being held in Washington DC.

"We have to remember that NATO is augmenting the air defences of Turkey and we do that by deploying Spanish Patriot batteries to Turkey and also Italy is deploying SAMP/T batteries augmenting the Turkish air defences," Stoltenberg added. "I also welcome the fact that there is an ongoing dialogue between the United States and Turkey on the delivery of Patriot systems to Turkey and also that there is a dialogue going on between Turkey, Italy, and France looking into the possibility of delivering French-Italian systems SAMP/T".

Earlier, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey urgently needs air defence systems because of the significant missile threats in the region.

Even US President Donald Trump had admitted in talks over the telephone that the previous administration made a mistake to not sell US Patriot missile systems to Turkey, Cavusoglu noted.

The Turkish foreign minister stated that Ankara had recently received a proposal from the United States on a possible purchase of the Patriot systems, but emphasized that the proposal does not mean Washington will sell such systems to Ankara.

Cavusoglu also said NATO is not yet capable enough to cover Turkish airspace, and the S-400 does not need to be compatible with NATO weapon systems or the US F-35 jet.

NATO Must Adapt to Confront Emerging Threats From China, Russia

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in turn, stated that NATO must adapt to face new global security threats including Russian aggression and Chinese strategic competition.

Since taking office in January 2017, US President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized NATO as an obsolete organisation and blasted EU allies over their failure to meet the 2-percent GDP defence spending target, prompting speculation that the US president might pull his country out of the military alliance.

Only five out of 29 NATO members — Estonia, Greece, Latvia, the United Kingdom, and the United States — currently meet their commitment to spend 2 percent of their GDP on defence, according to NATO.

Hello,
!

We are committed to protecting your personal information and we have updated our Privacy Policy to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a new EU regulation that went into effect on May 25, 2018.

Please review our Privacy Policy. It contains details about the types of data we collect, how we use it, and your data protection rights.

Since you already shared your personal data with us when you created your personal account, to continue using it, please check the box below:

I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of creating a personal account on this site, in compliance with the Privacy Policy.

If you do not want us to continue processing your data, please click here to delete your account.

promotes the use of narcotic / psychotropic substances, provides information on their production and use;

contains links to viruses and malicious software;

is part of an organized action involving large volumes of comments with identical or similar content ("flash mob");

“floods” the discussion thread with a large number of incoherent or irrelevant messages;

violates etiquette, exhibiting any form of aggressive, humiliating or abusive behavior ("trolling");

doesn’t follow standard rules of the English language, for example, is typed fully or mostly in capital letters or isn’t broken down into sentences.

The administration has the right to block a user’s access to the page or delete a user’s account without notice if the user is in violation of these rules or if behavior indicating said violation is detected.